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Amidst raving about Google maps capabilities, an new open source project pops up that does many of the same things. ka-Map, released by DM Solutions, handles many of the same web mapping challenges that Google has handled so well. The project is being opened up for open source participation, improvements and testing. It looks very promising and powerful, with a ton of great data loaded behind and powered by the open source MapServer.

The Apache Software Foundation is one of many open source software organizations shaking the business world all the way down to its proprietary software toes. Along with Linux, the Apache HTTP Server has long been the consummate example of the power and quality of open source software. Its runaway success against Microsoft IIS illustrates that the better product can triumph over both monopoly and marketing dollars.

Start-up Scali is gaining steam in the Linux clustering market with the introduction of management software.

According to Sun Microsystems, the newly announced IBM and Red Hat Solaris migration initiatives are an "act of desperation" in response to the momentum behind Solaris 10. On Tuesday, IBM and Red Hat unveiled a series of new initiatives, including their "Solaris to Linux Migration Factory," which are geared to help drive business away from Solaris and onto Linux.

"Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves," wrote Lord Chesterfield to his son in 1750. Today, this simple advice is as difficult to follow as it was 255 years ago. But we are lucky to have some powerful open source applications that make the task a bit easier. The Grisbi project aims "to provide you with the most simple and intuitive software for basic use," but this doesn't mean it is light on features. It supports multiple currencies, account reconciling, import/export of QIF files, and reports, and all this functionality is wrapped up in a user-friendly interface and available for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

Xandros, the leading developer of easy-to-use Linux solutions, today announced that it is shipping Xandros SurfSide Linux. The new desktop product comes with free Skype-to-Skype calling worldwide, and a Plantronics USB headset combo, "ready to plug in and call." Xandros SurfSide Linux is available for purchase in retail stores and from the Xandros web site for a list price of USD $99.95. As a special limited-time offer, it will include a bonus voucher for up to 120 minutes of free SkypeOut calling to any phone number in the world.

Folks in the media and at the Mozilla Foundation may have been moderately surprised after IBM began encouraging employees to use Firefox last week, but to dedicated users of the open source browser, it was just another day on the Net.

Until now Cuba's state computers have exclusively used Windows. That may be all about to change. The Cuban government daily Juventud Rebelde is reporting that Cuba, which already has 1500 computers using Linux, is working on a legal framework that would allow the replacement of the Windows system throughout the Cuban government.

The LPI certification event held yesterday at LinuxWorld South Africa saw candidates writing 111 exams.

Long-time Linux advocate and a keynote speaker at the first LinuxWorld ZA conference, Jon "Maddog" Hall told conference delagates that the real value of open source is not captured in a total-cost-of-ownership calculation.

As a Romanian and IT fanatic, I've watched the rise of Linux and open source from a different point of view than most. Romania went through a revolution in December 1989, and since then many things have changed, including computers and the way they are perceived by a country that is better known for its Dracula figure than its IT involvement. We have our professionals -- people that are hired by foreign companies to work in different sectors of the computer industry. We have our software firms that produce quality software, such as BitDefender. Last but not least, we have our Linux user groups, and now a magazine dedicated to Linux and open source software.

MontaVista Software this week is expected to launch an offering for carriers interested in deploying Linux-based servers and appliances. The vendor's MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition (CGE) 4.0 is based on the latest Linux 2.6 kernel, and was built to the specifications of the Carrier Grade Linux working group - a multi-vendor effort led by the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), which outlines specifications for high-availability and fault tolerance for Linux-based systems running in telecom environments.

Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.'s CIO said last week that the exchange will scrap its proprietary SuperMontage order entry and execution system in favor of an open-source system from electronic broker Instinet Group Inc., which Nasdaq agreed to acquire last month.

The Firefox browser comes pre-configured with lots of great search tools, but it's also highly customizable, allowing you to push your online experience to new and fun extremes.

Cuba will gradually switch to the open-source Linux operating system for its state computers, eliminating its exclusive use of Microsoft Windows, the government daily Juventud Rebelde reported on Tuesday.

IBM's recent acquisition of software development firm Gluecode will give a huge boost to the open source community, industry experts have predicted.

Synaq plans to showcase the "clear cut" advantages open source software offers businesses, irrespective of their size.

Last week we covered what Linux software RAID is good for and not good for, and hardware RAID vs. software RAID. In a nutshell it's about getting good performance for just the cost of ordinary inexpensive drives and controllers, and either increasing uptimes or speeding up performance, or a bit of both. It is not a substitute for the usual sensible failsafes like regular backups, power protection, and terrorizing users into following ... I mean "enforcing sane security policies."

"Linux itself has been ready for the desktop for years," said Mike Ferris, Red Hat's product marketing manager for Enterprise Linux. "It's just been waiting for the market to catch up."

Switching over to Linux has been a gamble for many business people. They ask, "Who is going to support this thing?" That question has been the killer for many would-be Linux migration projects. In spite of distribution vendors and consulting firms offering a plethora of support services, companies have still been reluctant to change. Even if the new system had ultra-slick support tools built in, the disruption caused by retraining the operations staff in the Linux way of doing things was just too much to handle. QCD Microsystems hopes to overcome this migration barrier with their Interstructures product.